Suzanne Shep­pard

Many years ago, when she was asked to se­lect an ob­ject that per­son­i­fied her life’s pur­pose, Nadiège Hon­oré-Welling­ton se­lect­ed a lifebuoy.

“I’ve al­ways known I was meant to sup­port and hold space for oth­ers. I’ve al­ways felt deeply drawn to un­der­stand­ing peo­ple, cre­at­ing safe­ty, and help­ing oth­ers feel seen,” she ex­plained.

“That in­tu­itive pull has guid­ed every stage of my jour­ney—from stand­ing in the spot­light to sit­ting in a qui­et ther­a­py room, sup­port­ing women as they nav­i­gate life’s most vul­ner­a­ble mo­ments.”

The range of ex­pe­ri­ences that have shaped Hon­oré-Welling­ton, a coun­selling psy­chol­o­gist, in­clude rep­re­sent­ing T&T as a na­tion­al and schol­ar­ship ath­lete and plac­ing fourth in the 2009 Miss World Trinidad and To­ba­go Pageant.

Hon­oré-Welling­ton said these ex­pe­ri­ences helped her learn the pow­er of dis­ci­pline, men­tal re­silience and self-crit­i­cism.

Orig­i­nal­ly from south Trinidad but now based in Port-of-Spain, she at­tend­ed Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School, then went on to Siena Col­lege in New York on a vol­ley­ball schol­ar­ship.

She lat­er did her Mas­ters in Coun­selling Psy­chol­o­gy with em­pha­sis in mar­riage and fam­i­ly at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean.

“I’ve al­ways been pas­sion­ate about re­la­tion­ships on a per­son­al lev­el ... feel­ing loved and feel­ing like you be­long. Fam­i­ly is a cru­cial part of that,” she said.

“I’ve seen the neg­a­tive im­pact of bro­ken fam­i­lies.”

She has al­so men­tored young peo­ple through a non-prof­it and of­fered them oth­er es­sen­tial sup­port as a guid­ance of­fi­cer in the pub­lic sec­tor.

Hon­oré-Welling­ton, who start­ed her pri­vate prac­tice, Thriv­ing Life Ther­a­py, in 2020, pro­vides a range of ther­a­py and group events, in­clud­ing men­tal health work­shops in the work­place, all with the aim of cre­at­ing safe, in­ter­ac­tive spaces for pro­fes­sion­als to ex­plore stress, burnout, emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion, and work-life bal­ance.

She al­so of­fers her clients walk-and-talk ther­a­py and on­line ses­sions as part of her mis­sion to “nor­malise men­tal health con­ver­sa­tions,” not just at home but al­so at work, where so many peo­ple spend the ma­jor­i­ty of their lives.

“I have sup­port­ed adults, cou­ples and teens through ther­a­py in my prac­tice for the past five years,” she said.

How­ev­er, be­com­ing a wife and moth­er “added an­oth­er lay­er of growth, ground­ing me in the messy, beau­ti­ful, and some­times over­whelm­ing re­al­i­ty of wom­an­hood.”

She ad­mit­ted that moth­er­hood came with some unique chal­lenges.

“I have seen first-hand the feel­ings of over­whelm moth­ers ex­pe­ri­ence, that un­re­lent­ing dri­ve to do what is best for our chil­dren and fam­i­lies, even to our own detri­ment. Moth­ers need sup­port,” the moth­er of two said.

“I know what it’s like to give your all to moth­er­hood—to jug­gle the sleep­less nights, the nev­er-end­ing to-do lists, the high ex­pec­ta­tions. I al­so know how easy it is to put your­self last, to feel like there’s nev­er enough time to pause, breathe, and pour in­to our­selves.”

She has al­so seen the ex­tent to which the de­mands of moth­er­hood caus­es some women to feel so very alone that they are at risk of “very high lev­els of de­pres­sion.”

How­ev­er, it is pos­si­ble to suc­cess­ful­ly nav­i­gate the chal­lenges of moth­er­hood, she said.

“I have seen how re­silient peo­ple can be with the right sup­port.”

Through her prac­tice, Hon­oré-Welling­ton pro­vides sup­port to women, es­pe­cial­ly moth­ers, who are deal­ing with anx­i­ety, burnout, iden­ti­ty shifts, and emo­tion­al ex­haus­tion.

“I help women re­con­nect with them­selves, de­vel­op prac­ti­cal tools for man­ag­ing their men­tal health, and re­build their con­fi­dence from the in­side out,” she said.

Sip and thrive

With the well-be­ing of moth­ers in mind, Hon­oré-Welling­ton will be host­ing her first-ever in-per­son Sip and Thrive event on May 4.

Or­gan­ised to take place in the count­down to Moth­er’s Day, which will be cel­e­brat­ed on May 11, the event will be an “in­ti­mate, soul-nour­ish­ing evening de­signed to help moth­ers re­set, re­con­nect, and recharge—be­cause tak­ing care of our­selves isn’t a lux­u­ry, it’s a ne­ces­si­ty,” Hon­oré-Welling­ton said.

“This gath­er­ing is the per­fect space for sup­port, con­nec­tion, and re­al con­ver­sa­tions about self-care and men­tal well­ness in moth­er­hood. It will be in­ten­tion­al­ly cosy, re­flec­tive, and en­cour­ag­ing, with tools you can use long af­ter the ses­sion ends.”

You can send What­sApp mes­sages to 868-724-6115 and fol­low on In­sta­gram @thriv­ing_life_ther­a­py